Friday afternoon, a historical treasure was up for auction at Bruun Rasmussen in Copenhagen. Queen Alexandrine’s Russian sapphire tiara was sold for DKK 2 million.

„The Russian sapphire tiara is by far the most spectacular Russian objet d’art we have ever sold at Bruun Rasmussen. Here beauty and history come together at the highest level. I am overwhelmed by all the attention this piece of jewellery has garnered from our customers and the Danish and international press,“ says Martin Hans Borg, Bruun Rasmussen’s Head Specialist in Russian Art.

In 1898, Princess Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin was married to the Danish Crown Prince Christian in Cannes, and the couple were in 1912 proclaimed Queen Alexandrine and King Christian X of Denmark.

One of their wedding presents was the beautiful sapphire bandeau, later rebuild to an tiar. They were given the piece of jewellery by Tsar Nikolai II and Tsaritsa Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia.

In 1933, the Danish royal couple passed on the piece of jewellery to their daughter-in-law Hereditary Princess Caroline-Mathilde at her wedding to their youngest son Hereditary Prince Knud at the Fredensborg Palace Chapel.

After the Hereditary Princess‘ death in 1995, the tiara was given to her son Count Christian of Rosenborg and his family, where it has been until today.

It was the three daughters of Count Christian, Josephine, Camilla and Feodora of Rosenborg, who sold the tiara at the Russian auction.

Who bought the imperial diamond and sapphire tiara?

Probably an museum – or an collector, I had ask for by the auction house, the information will follow.

When I discovered the first pictures of the Duchess of Kent in 2016 and the first magazine page was created, I did not yet know that this was one of the important jewels on the list from the sale of the Romanov jewels by Dowager Empress Maria Alexandrovna.
In 1928, according to an estimate by the jeweller Hennell London, they were offered for sale by their daughter Grand Duchess Xenia. It was one of the precious jewel brooches of Maria Feodorovna, the private Romanov jewels, not crown jewels. Another jewelry puzzle is solved.